Students material for Hotel Morgue

This material is designed to help you to

prepare for the performance The Strange

Case of Hotel Morgue by The Play Group.

This is version 1.2 of the students

worksheets. Click on the icon to check for the

latest version.

2. Simple summary of the story

The story begins with a gentleman called Dupin in his house with a

friend. He reads a terrible story in the newspaper. A violent killer

murdered an old woman and her daughter. The old woman was

decapitated and her body was thrown out of the house. The daughter

was strangled and her body was found inside the chimney of their

apartment.

The police have no idea how the killer escaped, because the women’s

apartment was locked from the inside. Dupin and his friend - the

narrator of the story - decide to help the police. Dupin studies the

crime scene. His brilliant interpretation identifies that the murderer

was an escaped orangutan. Of course, the police are not happy that

Dupin solved the case first!

This is the real story: the orangutan came with a sailor to Paris from

Borneo, an island in Indonesia. The orangutan lived in the sailor’s

house and every day he saw the sailor shaving. One night, the

orangutan escaped with the sailor’s razor and ran through the streets

of Paris.

When the animal saw a light in a window, he climbed into the house,

which was the old woman’s apartment. He wanted to shave her with

the razor but she resisted. He became violent and decapitated her.

The orangutan then threw her body out of the window and he

strangled the daughter. When the sailor arrived at the window, the

orangutan decided to hide the daughter’s body in the chimney.

3. Simple summary of the story in Italian

La storia apre con un uomo di nome Dupin che è a casa sua con un

amico. Dupin legge una storia terribile sul giornale. Un violento

assassino ha ucciso una donna anziana e sua figlia. La vecchia fu

decapitata e il suo corpo fu gettato fuori di casa. La figlia è stata

strangolata e il suo corpo è stato trovato all'interno del camino del

loro appartamento.

La polizia non ha idea di come sia scappato l'assassino, perché

l'appartamento delle donne era chiuso a chiave dall'interno. Dupin e

il suo amico - il narratore della storia - decidono di aiutare la polizia.

Dupin studia la scena del crimine. La sua brillante interpretazione

degli indizi identifica l'assassino - un orangutan fuggito. Certo, la

polizia non è contenta che Dupin abbia risolto il caso prima di loro.

Questa è la vera storia: l'orangutan arrivò con un marinaio a Parigi dal

Borneo, un'isola in Indonesia. L'orangutan viveva nella casa del

marinaio e ogni giorno osservava la rasatura del marinaio. Una sera,

l'orangutan fuggì con il rasoio del marinaio e corse per le strade di

Parigi.

Quando l'animale vide una luce in una finestra, entrò nella casa, che

era l'appartamento della vecchia. Voleva raderla con il rasoio ma lei

resistette. L’orangutan è diventato violento e l'ha quasi decapitata.

L'orangutan quindi gettò il suo corpo fuori dalla finestra e strangolò la

figlia. Quando il marinaio arrivò alla finestra, l'orangutan decise di

nascondere il corpo della figlia nel camino.

4. Advanced summary of the story

“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is a murder-mystery short story by

Edgar Allen Poe, published in Graham’s Magazine in 1841. It was

described by critics as the first modern detective story.

The narrator of the story opens with a commentary on the nature and

practice of analytical reasoning, then describes how he first met

Dupin during a visit to Paris. The two share rooms in an old mansion

and receive no visitors. They have cut off all contact with friends and

only go out at night. One evening, Dupin demonstrates his analytical

talent by deducing the narrator's thoughts about a particular stage

actor, based on clues gathered from the narrator's previous words

and actions.

During the remainder of that evening and the following morning,

Dupin and the narrator read with great interest the newspaper

accounts of a mysterious double murder. Madame L'Espanaye and

her daughter have been found dead at their home in the Rue Morgue,

a fictional street in Paris. The mother was found in a courtyard behind

the house, with multiple broken bones and her throat so deeply cut

that her head fell off when the body was moved. The daughter was

found strangled to death and stuffed upside down into a chimney.

The murders occurred in a fourth-floor room that was locked from the

inside; on the floor were found a bloody straight razor, several bloody

tufts of gray hair, and two bags of gold coins. Several witnesses

reported hearing two voices at the time of the murder, one male and

French, but disagreed on the language spoken by the other. The

speech was unclear, and all witnesses claimed not to know the

language they believed the second voice to be speaking.

When a bank clerk named Adolphe Le Bon is arrested even though

no evidence exists pointing to his guilt (other than his delivering the

gold coins to the two ladies the day before), Dupin is intrigued and

remembers a service that Le Bon once performed for him. He decides

to offer his assistance to the prefect of police.

Because none of the witnesses can agree on the language the

murderer spoke, Dupin concludes they were not hearing a human

voice at all. He and the narrator examine the house thoroughly; the

following day, Dupin states that Le Bon is innocent and believes there

was no robbery as the gold was not taken from the room. He also

points out that the murderer would have had to have superhuman

strength to force the daughter's body up the chimney. He formulates

a method by which the murderer could have entered the room and

killed both women, involving an agile climb up a lightning rod and a

jump to a set of open window shutters. Dupin then shows a strange

tuft of hair he found at from the scene of the crime and shows the

impossibility of the daughter being strangled by a human hand.

Dupin concludes that it was an orangutan that killed the women.

He places an advertisement in the local newspaper asking if anyone

has lost such an animal, and soon a sailor arrives looking for it.

The sailor offers to pay a reward, but Dupin is interested only in

learning the circumstances behind the two murders. The sailor

explains that he captured the orangutan while in Borneo and brought

it back to Paris, but had trouble keeping it under control. When he

saw the orangutan attempting to shave its face with his straight razor,

imitating the sailor’s morning shave, it escaped into the streets and

reached the Rue Morgue, where it climbed up and into the house. The

orangutan seized the mother by the hair and was waving the razor,

imitating a barber; when she screamed in fear, it flew into a rage,

ripped her hair out and slashed her throat and then strangled the

daughter. The sailor climbed up the lightning rod in an attempt to

catch the animal, and the two voices heard by witnesses belonged to

it and to him. Fearing punishment by its master, the orangutan threw

the mother's body out of the window and stuffed the daughter into

the chimney before fleeing.

The sailor sells the orangutan, Le Bon is released from custody, and

when Dupin tells him the story, the police prefect mentions that

people should mind their own business. Dupin comments to the

narrator that the prefect is "somewhat too cunning to be profound",

but admires his ability “to deny that which is, and explain that which is

not".

5. Word Grid

Can you find these characters from our story? “Paris” is shown for you.

There are also 3 simple words in French.

Aunt / Nephew / Madame Camille / Auguste Dupin / Gaston / Jaques

Oignon / Doctor Flow / Bonjour / Au revoir / Paris

Wolf mask 01

Wolf mask 02

8. Song: the big bad wolf

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf

The big bad wolf, the big bad wolf

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf

Tra la la la la

Long ago there were three pigs

Little handsome piggy wigs

For the big, bad the very big, very bad wolf

They did not give three figs

Number one was very gay

And he built his house with hay

With a hey hey toot he blew on his flute

And he played around all day

Now number two was fond of jigs

And so he built his house with twigs

Hey, diddle diddle he played on his fiddle

And danced with lady pigs

Number three said, "Nix on tricks

I shall build my house with bricks"

He had no chance to sing or dance

'Cause work and play don't mix

Ha, ha, ha, the two little do little pigs

Just winked and laughed ah, woo

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf

The big bad wolf, the big bad wolf

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf

Tra la la la la

Came the day when fate did frown

And a wolf blew into town

With a gruff huff puff, he puffed just enough

And the hay house fell right down

One and two were scared to death

Of the big bad wolf's breath

By the hair of your chinny chin I'll blow you in

And the twig house answered yes

No one left but number three

To save that piglet family

So when they knocked, he fast unlocked

And said come in with me

Now they all were safe inside

But the bricks hurt wolf's pride

So, he slid down the chimney and oh, by

Jiminey

In a fire he was fried

Oh, oh, oh, the three little free little pigs

Just winked and laughed, ah, woo

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf

The big bad wolf, the big bad wolf

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf

Tra la la la la

Tra la la, tra la la

Tra la la la la la la la la la la

Who's afraid of the big, big, big

10. Popular expressions with the word “wolf”

Re-order the definitions with the expression.

Can you think of more?

12. Crime scene exercise

In this exercise, you have the chance to be a detective or the witness

(testimone) to a crime.

Your teacher will explain more.

13. The Life of Edgar Allan Poe

Fill in the gaps using the

following words:

studied, died, popular,

mystery, writer, earn, winner,

academy, cities, short

stories, death, named,

detective

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849) was an American a) ____________

editor and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short

stories, particularly his tales of b) ____________ and the macabre. He is

widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism and of American

literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest writers

of c) ____________. He is generally considered the inventor of the d)

____________ fiction genre and also contributed to the new genre of

science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to e)

____________ a living through writing alone, although this resulted in a

financially difficult life and career.

Poe was born in Boston, to parents who were actors. In fact, Edgar

may have been f) ____________ after a character in William

Shakespeare's King Lear which his parents were performing in 1809.

His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the

following year. Subsequently, Edgar was fostered by the Allan family

in Richmond, Virginia.

He g) ____________ at the University of Virginia but left after a year for

lack of money.

He began his publishing career

using the anonymous name “A

Bostonian”, with a collection,

called “Tamerlane and Other

Poems” (1827).

Poe then entered as an officer

cadet at West Point, the famous

American military h) ____________

but the experience was a failure. In

reality, Poe wanted to be a poet

and writer.

He concentrated on writing and

worked for literary newspapers

and magazines, becoming known

for his literary criticism. He moved among several i) ____________,

including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. He married his

13-year-old cousin Virginia in 1836. In January 1845, Poe published

his poem "The Raven" and it was an instant success, but unfortunately

his wife Virginia j) ____________ of tuberculosis two years after its

publication.

Poe died in Baltimore in 1849, at the age of 40; the cause of his k)

____________ is unknown and has been attributed to alcohol, "brain

congestion", cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide,

tuberculosis, and other causes.

Edgar Allan Poe and his works influenced crime literature around the

world, as well as other fields like cosmology and cryptography. His

work appears throughout l) ____________ culture in literature, music,

films, and television.

The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as

the Edgar Award (click the link for more information) for distinguished

work in the mystery genre. The 2019 m) ____________ was Walter

Mosley with Down the River Unto the Sea.

14. Online comic version of the story

Click on the link to see a fantastic adaptation of The Murders of Rue

Morgue. Enjoy it at home too!

http://vlcomic.com/read/comic-edgar-allan-poe-s-morella-and-the-

murders-in-the-rue-morgue-eng/1

After reading it, discuss with friends or in class what you enjoyed or

didn’t like about the version!